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Snowden sideshow

Is the search for NSA leaker distracting from more important issues?

Associated Press

Washington D.C.

Jun 29, 2013

Edward Snowden's continent-jumping, hide-and-seek game seems like the stuff of a pulp thriller — a desperate man's drama played out before a worldwide audience trying to decide if he's a hero or a villain.

But the search for the former National Security Agency contractor who spilled U.S. secrets has become something of a distracting sideshow, some say, overshadowing the important debate over the government's power to seize the phone and Internet records of millions of Americans to help in the fight against terrorism.

"You have to be humble on Day 1 to say, 'This isn't about me. This is about the information.'... I don't think he really anticipated the importance of making sure the focus initially was off him," says Mike Paul, president of MGP & Associates PR, a crisis management firm in New York. "Not only has he weakened his case, some would go as far as to say he's gone from hero to zero."

Snowden, he says, can get back on track by "utilizing whatever information he has like big bombs in a campaign," so the focus returns to the question of spying and not his life on the run.

Snowden's disclosures about U.S. surveillance to The Guardian newspaper and The Washington Post have created an uproar in Washington that shows no signs of fading.

A petition asking President Barack Obama to pardon Snowden has collected more than 123,000 signatures.

But the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., meanwhile, has called Snowden's disclosure of top-secret information "an act of treason." House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is among those who've called Snowden a "traitor."

The president has dismissed the 30-year-old Snowden as a "hacker" and he had pledged that the U.S. won't be scrambling military jets to snatch Snowden and return him to the U.S., where he faces espionage charges.

Snowden is possibly holed up in the wing of a Russian airport hotel reserved for travelers in transit who don't have visas to enter Russia. He might be waiting to hear whether Ecuador, Iceland or another country might grant him asylum. He fled Hong Kong last weekend after being charged with violating American espionage laws.

Some say Snowden is losing ground in the battle for public opinion by cloaking his travels in secrecy, creating more interest in his efforts to elude U.S. authorities than his allegations against the government.

By disappearing in Russia, he loses "access to rehabilitate himself in the public's mind," says William Weaver, a professor at the University of Texas at El Paso who has written about government secrecy.

"You have to keep selling yourself, if you will, and do it in a smart way so people don't get tired of you. ... His only hope was to hit a grand slam home run with the public and make it stick. For every hour that he's not doing something like that, he's in trouble."

Others say Snowden's personality is irrelevant and doesn't change his major argument — that U.S. intelligence agencies have lied about the scope of its surveillance of Americans.

Gene Healy, a vice president of the libertarian Cato Institute, recently wrote an essay denouncing pundits who've labeled Snowden a "grandiose narcissist" and a "total slacker." He maintains that the former contractor's revelations are all that matters. "The content of the message is far more important than the character of the messenger," he wrote in the Washington Examiner.

Healy said "the most disturbing" part of Snowden's disclosures was the massive amounts of data collected on citizens. "The potential abuse of that information represents a grave threat to American liberty and privacy regardless of Snowden's character and motivations," he wrote.

David Colapinto, general counsel at the National Whistleblowers Center, says it's not surprising Snowden has become an "easy target'" facing harsh criticism from those at the highest levels of government — people "who have a bigger megaphone than he does."

"The name-calling and whatever may happen in the future — we don't know what he's going to do," he adds. "We don't know what the government is going to do. ... It's pretty hard to pull out a crystal ball."

So far, America seems to be divided, according to polls taken in the first days after Snowden's leak of top-secret documents. Many people initially applauded the former contractor for exposing what they saw as government spying on ordinary Americans. Since then, though, government officials have responded with explanations of the program and congressional testimony attesting to the value of surveillance in thwarting terrorist attacks.

In one poll, a June 12-16 national survey by the Pew Research Center and USA Today, 49 percent of those surveyed said the release of classified information about the NSA program serves the public interest, while 44 percent found it harmful. For those under 30, the gap was dramatically larger. That group said it's good for the public by a 60-34 percent margin, according to the survey.

Still, 54 percent also said the government should pursue a criminal case against someone who leaked classified information about the program.

A second survey taken in that same five-day period found a similar split. The Washington Post-ABC news poll found that 43 percent support and 48 percent oppose criminally charging Snowden. But the survey also reported that 58 percent of Americans support the NSA's sweeping surveillance program.

Snowden has acknowledged taking highly classified documents about U.S. surveillance and sharing the information with the papers in Britain and Washington. He also told the South China Morning Post that the NSA hacked Chinese cellphone companies to seek text message data.

At this point, Snowden's main job is to stay out of prison and he has both a "powerful narrative" and major disadvantages, says Eric Dezenhall, head of a crisis management firm in Washington.

"The biggest thing on the asset side is the concern people have about government surveillance — it's very legitimate," Dezenhall says. "The weaknesses are having betrayed secrets he was entrusted with and the fact he ended up in these hostile countries. .... Public opinion doesn't move on nuance. (People think) You're a whistle-blower who's in Russia or China. So you think they have an answer to this problem? It's not very intelligent."

Gerald R. Shuster, a professor of political communication at the University of Pittsburgh, says if Snowden had remained in the U.S. and "stood his ground, he would have remained more heroic" and lawyers would have lined up to represent him.

But if he's brought back to face charges and "he's shown in handcuffs, the aura of idealism is over," Shuster says. "He's more and more perceived as a criminal."

Colapinto, the lawyer for the whistle-blower group, says it's too soon to know how Snowden's plight will play out.

"This is like a moving river," he says. "We're maybe midstream. We don't know where this will end up. I think history will judge him as things develop. But we just don't know the end of the story."

Comments

2cents

Sat, 06/29/2013 - 7:00pm

You mean like providing weapons to the Syrian rebels like these bozos that chose to chop the heads off a Christian Bishop and another young Christian man! These people are sub human if that.

Or, maybe this......
Bob: "Did you hear about the Obama administration scandal?"
Jim: "You mean the Mexican gun running?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean SEAL Team 6 Extortion 17?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the State Dept. lying about Benghazi?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the voter fraud?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the military not getting their votes counted?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the president demoralizing and breaking down the military?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the Boston Bombing?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the president wanting to kill Americans with drones in our own country without the benefit of the law?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "You mean the president arming the Muslim Brotherhood?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The IRS targeting conservatives?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The DOJ spying on the press?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Sebelius shaking down health insurance executives?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The NSA monitoring our phone calls, e-mails and everything else?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The president's ordering the release of nearly 10,000 illegal immigrants from jails and prisons and falsely blaming the seqester?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The president's threat to impose gun control by Executive Order in order to bypass Congress?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The president's repeated violation of the law requiring him to submit a budget no later than the first Monday in February?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The president's unconstitutional recess appointments in an attempt to circumvent the Senate's advise-and-consent role?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "The State Department interfering with an Inspector General investigation on departmental sexual misconduct?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "HHS employees being given insider information on Medicare Advantage?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "Clinton, the IRS, Clapper and Holder all lying to Congress?"
Bob: "No, the other one."
Jim: "I give up! ... Oh wait, I think I got it! You mean that 65 million low-information voters stuck us again with the most corrupt administration in American history?"
Bob: "THAT'S THE ONE!"
__________________

The Big Dog's back

Sat, 06/29/2013 - 8:45pm

* 57,700 Floridians are purged from voter rolls as "felons" by George Bush's brother Gov. Jeb Bush 5 months before 2000 election; most are African Americans and not felons at all, costing Al Gore the state and the election.

* Fighting a Florida recount in U.S. Supreme Court, Bush lawyers fly back and forth from Tallahassee to Washington on Enron jet.

* 2000 election is decided for Bush 5-4 by U.S. Supreme Court, which orders a halt to Florida vote recount based on an inapplicable constitutional provision and stipulates that its ruling cannot be used as legal precedent for any other case.

* California runs low on electricity immediately after election of Bush, who refuses to intervene. Texas energy companies including Enron are later convicted of creating false shortages to drive up prices.

* EPA and other agencies are staffed with industry insiders who go to work reversing environmental protections in effect since 1970s.

* 60 eminent scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, send an open letter to the Bush administration, accusing it of shutting scientific advisory committees, stacking others with unqualified political appointees, and censoring reports that conflict with the administration's views.

* Bush tax giveaways deplete U.S. Treasury to reward top 1% of taxpayers.

* Bush ignores national security warning that Osama bin Laden is determined to strike U.S. targets.

* Bush sits with schoolchildren for seven minutes after being informed on September 11, 2001 that U.S. is under attack; several days later his administration over-rides the FAA ban on air travel and has bin Laden's relatives and other wealthy Saudis flown out of U.S. "for their safety."

* Judge Advocate General under Gen. Tommy Franks forbids a Predator Drone direct strike on Taliban leader Mullah Omar in first few hours of Afghan war. The hunt for Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden is then delegated to Afghan rebels in Tora Bora. Both terrorists escape and are still at large when Bush leaves office seven years later.

* Drug companies get their way as 2003 Medicare Bill prohibits government from negotiating lower prescription drug prices for seniors.

* U.N. weapons inspectors kicked out of Iraq when they find no Weapons of Mass Destruction; Bush administration uses "mushroom cloud" scare and false story of Iraqi involvement in 9-11 attacks to gain American support for Iraq invasion.

* Budgeted funds for Afghanistan war are diverted to invade Iraq.

* Any questioning of the war in Iraq is labelled "unpatriotic" as embedded U.S. press goes along for the ride.

* U.S. military defends Iraqi Oil Ministry while Baghdad museums are looted of priceless antiquities.

* Iraqi army disbanded by Coalition Provisional Authority head Paul Bremer, over objections of Gen. Garner. This throws 250,000 angry, armed Iraqis out of work, creates insurgency and helps enable flow of foreign fighters into Iraq. Asked later about how the decision was made to disband the Iraqi army, Bush says he can't remember.

* American troops travel in unarmored Humvees and have to buy their own body armor.

* Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld forced to stop sending "killed in action" condolence letters signed by autopen after an outraged father complains to his Congressman and it comes out in a hearing.

* Abu Ghraib torture photos released.

* Private contractors soon outnumber military in Iraq and operate with far less accountability.

* Valerie Plame outed as CIA agent by White House, in violation of federal law, as payback for her husband Joseph Wilson's op-ed piece disproving Bush's State of the Union claim that Saddam Hussein tried to purchase nuclear materials in Africa.

* Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff Scooter Libby found guilty of obstruction of justice in Plame case; sentence later commuted by Bush.

* White House cites "Executive Branch confidentiality interests" in withholding information from Congress on the "friendly fire" death of Pat Tillman, former NFL player who joined the Army after 9-11.

* White House advisor Karl Rove pushes anti-gay "Defense of Marriage" constitutional amendment to whip up Republican base and helps tip eleven states for Bush in 2004, after burying his own adoptive gay father in the summer of that year.

* Character assassination of 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry with "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" ads funded by oil interests.

* Ohio voting irregularities hand 2004 re-election to Bush, who is asked if he'll reach out to all Americans. "I'll reach out to those who share our views," he replies.

* "Spending his political capital," Bush attempts to privatize Social Security in 2005.

* Staged town meetings on Social Security allow no dissenting views. The public doesn't buy privatization.

* "Ignite! Learning," a company headed by Bush's brother Neil and party owned by his parents, gets federal funds to place its education product in disadvantaged school districts under the No Child Left Behind Act, without competitive bidding.

* Billions of dollars go missing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

* Bush fails to increase emergency readiness after being warned by the National Hurricane Center that the levees may break in Hurricane Katrina, August, 2005. A few days later, he says, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

* Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) ignores repeated warnings about Bernard Madoff, who is arrested in the largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history.

* With all three branches of the federal government dominated by one party in lockstep, checks and balances fail; motions by Congressman Dennis Kucinich to impeach the president and vice president go nowhere

The Big Dog's back

Sat, 06/29/2013 - 8:47pm

Now those are some real scandals.

Darwin's choice

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 12:01am

Thomas Jefferson owned slaves. There's a great scandal for you! And, like your above post, old news. Can't change history. The "current" list of failings can be changed though. Obama will be judged harshly as a failure by historians!

goofus

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 7:56pm

I see the last communist talking points arrived via Big Dog's e-mail,
the DNC surely excels in electronic media distribution

The Big Dog's back

Sat, 06/29/2013 - 8:57pm

And that's only a small, small part of Bush's scandals. The SR doesn't have enough room to print them all.

Darwin's choice

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 12:04am

"And that's only a small, small part of Obama's failure's. The SR doesn't have enough ink to print them all"

Fixed it for you!

The Big Dog's back

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 8:53am

Child like behavior.

getit right be4...

Sat, 06/29/2013 - 10:04pm

Why must we spend so much time party bashing, and trying to make it seem as one party is better than the next? The government in general has been out of control for a very long time. It is time to get both parties under control before it is to late for a peaceful resolve.

It is time to get back on track and follow the Constitution. This country is not a Democracy it is a Constitutional Republic. It does not matter if 99% of Americans think its ok for the government to spy and collect data on its citizens without warrant in the name of security. It is against the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. This country is not a Democracy the majority can not vote out the minorities rights.

How much more infringements on our rights do you think it will take to push thing pass the point of no return?

Darwin's choice

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 12:05am

We have already passed that point......

The Big Dog's back

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 8:55am

Gov got a warrant through the FISA court. bush is the one who did warrantless wiretaps.

I know. Strange that such violence over inequality would be occurring in the socialist paradise of Sweden isn't it?

2cents

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 7:11am

I know this may sound ironic but I have Syrian friends with relatives that have fled to Sweden to get away from the fighting. They chose Sweden because it has the best giveaways. Not what I like to hear but reality it is!

The Big Dog's back

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 9:01am

You sure are fascinated with FICTION. Oh, that's right, you are a rush/glen/fox follower.

The Big Dog's back

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 8:57am

Yes, Obama should do that to the obstructionists Repubs.

Contango

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 6:42am

Is Snowden "something of a distracting sideshow,...overshadowing the important debate,"?

So we should let Companies pollute our land, air and water more just so they bring jobs back? They are to busy exploiting 3rd world countries and making a ton of money in the process to bring jobs back here.

2cents

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 10:23pm

As long as your buying, they will keep producing over there with their slave labor!

registerer

Mon, 07/01/2013 - 12:57pm

May not really matter! The way President Obama is saddling our future generations with HUGE deficits there will be no way to spend their way out unless they give all of their money to the gov't. So, pick your poison, no money or the enviroment.

Centauri

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 9:42am

The Federal Bureau of Intimidation is going after political activists and hactivists in order to keep the truth away from the people.

Snowden exposed to the people that the government was spying on them without warrants. The government has all kinds of information from chatrooms, private emails, your health records (violation of HIPAA), your private emails, phone calls and anything that you want private. The government with the help of private companies (stores) will know everything about you including what you buy.

Who will be watching the government if political activists and hactivists are intimidated, arrested and prosecuted?

Who will help you when the federal storm troopers come to your home without a warrant and arrest you for questioning your government? Nobody is going to help you because the federal goons are going after anybody who dares to expose the lies of the government and the ruling class.

http://www.restorethefourth.net/
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures...”

The Big Dog's back

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 11:43am

Are you on the FISA court paulbot?

Mommy25

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 10:28am

First they came for the whistle-blowers,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a whistle-blower.

Then they came for the Hacktivists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Hacktivists.

Then they came for the Christians,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Christian.

Then they came for the Gun Owners,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't the Gun Owner.

Then they came for the Conservatives,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Conservative.

Then they came for the Constitutionalists
and I did not speak out because I wasn't a constitutionalists

Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.

Centauri

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 10:30am

Are the American people so brain washed in that they wish harm and death to silence whistle-blowers?

Do the American people want to hear the truth?

What has happened to freedoms in America?

Hope and change for the ruling class? It appears that way. Once they gain complete control of this nation, the freebies to the poor will stop. Those freebies were only meant to buy votes.

http://rt.com/usa/chalk-olson-di...
"Olson has been charged with 13 misdemeanor counts of vandalism for chalking slogans such as “No Thanks, Big Banks" and "Shame on Bank of America" on the sidewalks outside of branches in the San Diego area throughout 2012. Now as the criminal trial against him wages on in Southern California, the defendant and anyone remotely involved in the case are reportedly muzzled by a ban that could bring media coverage of the case to a grinding halt"

Soon letters to the editor of newspapers will be considered crimes against the government.

http://rt.com/usa/california-man...
"Jeff Olson, the 40-year-old man who is being prosecuted for scrawling anti-megabank messages on sidewalks in water-soluble chalk last year now faces a 13-year jail sentence. A judge has barred his attorney from mentioning freedom of speech during trial."

Freedom of speech cannot be mentioned during his trial.

deertracker

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 11:38am

This guy is not a whistleblower. He is a traitor. He sought out that job to do exactly what he did. Execute him!

The Big Dog's back

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 11:45am

Exactly right deertracker.

Mommy25

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 10:43am

If you are afraid to speak out against tyranny (irregardless of the "side")

You are ALREADY a slave

The Big Dog's back

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 11:46am

Don't let facts get in the way of your thinking.

Contango

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 12:21pm

Re: "Execute him!"

Just take him out back and SHOOT him eh?

Should he also be forced to dig his own grave?

So no day in court?

An EXCELLENT attitude for a good little mindless Barack-hole Nazi.

Centauri

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 12:43pm

“When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“If tyranny and oppression come to this land it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”
― James Madison

“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“Withholding information is the essence of tyranny. Control of the flow of information is the tool of the dictatorship.”
― Bruce Coville

“Those who are capable of tyranny are capable of perjury to sustain it.”
― Lysander Spooner

“Whatever crushes individuality is despotism.”
― John Stuart Mill

“Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and opressions of the body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“Experience hath shown, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“To conquer a nation, first disarm its citizens.”
― Adolf Hitler

“We just can't trust the American people to make those types of choices.... Government has to make those choices for people.”
― Hilary Rodham Clinton

“The only way to make a difference is to acquire power.”
― Hilary Rodham Clinton

"Silent acquiescence in the face of tyranny is no better than outright agreement.”
― C.J. Redwine, Defiance

Contango

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 1:04pm

Some good ones!

Here's a few more for ya:

“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.”

- James Madison

“A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth”

- Albert Einstein

“To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes cowards out of men.”

– Abraham Lincoln

Centauri

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 12:57pm

http://communities.washingtontim...
"WASHINGTON, June 19, 2013 — There was a time when the United States stood for freedom and liberty. There was a time when oppressed people who longed to be free would look to the United States."

"Today we are seeing events unfold that show one thing beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty: Obama supports tyranny around the world and opposes those who want freedom, especially freedom from Islamic tyranny."

Hope and change? Obama sweet talk?

The Big Dog's back

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 8:34pm

It's called Crony Capitalism.

Centauri

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 1:03pm

http://communities.washingtontim...
"WEST PALM BEACH, FL, June 29, 2013 – When Edward Snowden elected to release classified information to the world, he apparently saw himself as a Lone Ranger or Robin Hood-type hero, saving the world from big government eavesdropping.

Snowden presented himself as a reluctant champion, stepping forward only as a last resort, forced by a sense of duty to save the world."

Centauri

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 1:14pm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/20...
"WASHINGTON -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday that Edward Snowden betrayed his country by leaking classified documents about the U.S. government's surveillance programs and warned that the former National Security Agency contractor may be spying for the Chinese government."

Dick Cheney and others are the real traitors. It doesn't matter if they are Republican or Democrats.

Centauri

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 2:04pm

http://rt.com/usa/drone-snowden-...
"Rep. Paul, who retired from Congress earlier this year after an unsuccessful bid at the presidency, has been outspoken in regards to both the Obama White House’s drone program and the need to protect whistleblowers. On the campaign trail last year he hailed Bradley Manning, the accused WikiLeaks source behind hundreds of thousands of sensitive files, and earlier this week he threw his weight behind supporting Snowden."

Centauri

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 2:07pm

http://www.freerepublic.com/focu...
"Politicians as diverse as Republican Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein called Snowden a traitor. So did former Vice President Dick Cheney, and President Obama said that for once Cheney’s words were music to his ears. On the other hand, former Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Republican Sen. Rand Paul, my Fox News colleague Bill O’Reilly and I have all referred to Snowden as a hero.

What did Snowden do that has those in power screaming for his scalp and those — generally — who fear the loss of liberty, including millions of young people, grateful for his courage?"

Centauri

Sun, 06/30/2013 - 2:15pm

http://rare.us/story/napolitano-...
"The first oath was to keep secret the classified materials to which he would be exposed in his work as a spy; the second oath was to uphold the Constitution.

Shortly after Snowden began his work with the NSA, he came to the realization that he could not comply with both oaths. He realized that by keeping secret what he learned, he was keeping the American public in the dark about what its government is doing outside the Constitution in order to control the public."

"The government persuaded a federal judge with a perverse understanding of the values and history and language of the Constitution to sign a series of orders directing the largest telephone company in the U.S. and the largest Internet providers in the world to make available to the government’s prying eyes all sorts of information about nearly all of us, thus allowing the feds to monitor our use of land-line and wireless phones, as well as our use of emails and texts. The numbers are staggering. Verizon has greater than 113,000,000 U.S. customers who generate or receive more than one billion phone calls every day. Americans text and email one another using the services of Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Facebook and others many billions of times every day.

The judge’s order was profoundly unconstitutional, as is the section of the Patriot Act that authorized it. The Constitution requires that the government demonstrate to all judges being asked to sign search warrants specific evidence of criminal behavior contained in the things to be seized. And it requires that the warrants themselves particularly describe the places to be searched or the persons or things to be seized."

If you can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license,
but not for being in the country illegally … you might live in a country
founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If you have to get your parents’ permission to go on a field trip or
take an aspirin in school, but not to get an abortion … you might live
in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If you have to show identification to board an airplane, cash a
check, buy liquor, or check out a library book, but not to vote who runs
the government … you might live in a country founded by geniuses but
run by idiots.

If the government wants to ban stable, law-abiding citizens from
owning gun magazines with more than ten rounds, but gives 20 F-16
fighter jets to the crazy new leaders in Egypt … you might live in a
country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If, in the largest city, you can buy two 16-ounce sodas, but not a
24-ounce soda because 24-ounces of a sugary drink might make you fat …
you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.
If an 80-year-old woman can be stripped searched by the TSA but a
woman in a hijab is only subject to having her neck and head searched …
you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions
of dollars of debt is to spend trillions more … you might live in a
country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If a seven year old boy can be thrown out of school for saying his
teacher is “cute,” but hosting a sexual exploration or diversity class
in grade school is perfectly acceptable … you might live in a country
founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If children are forcibly removed from parents who discipline them
with spankings while children of addicts are left in filth and drug
infested “homes”… you might live in a country founded by geniuses but
run by idiots.

If hard work and success are met with higher taxes and more
government intrusion, while not working is rewarded with EBT cards, WIC
checks, Medicaid, subsidized housing, and free cell phones … you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If the governments plan for getting people back to work is to
incentivize NOT working with 99 weeks of Unemployment checks and no
requirement to prove they applied but can’t find work … you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If you pay your mortgage faithfully, denying yourself the newest big
screen TV while your neighbor buys iPhones, TVs and new cars, and the
government forgives his debt when he defaults on his mortgage … you
might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If being stripped of the ability to defend yourself makes you more
“safe” according to the government … you might live in a country founded
by geniuses but run by idiots.